Geoff Tate Discusses ‘Out of the Blue’ Queensryche Ousting

Singer Geoff Tate was the guest on Saturday night’s (Aug. 25) ‘That Metal Show’ on VH1 Classic, and provided an open account of his ousting from Queensryche, with some speculation as to why it occurred.

When asked how it got to this point, the singer stated, “It’s kind of difficult to explain cause I’m not in their heads. I can only speculate really. It came out of the blue for me – creative differences or any kind of situation where we are at odds with each other, it just boom, it happened.” The singer hinted that a poor economy may have had something to do with it. He concluded, “We have a company together and they kicked me out, so I can now split my 25 percent.”

The vocalist admitting he’s still “kind of emotional” about the whole thing because of how quickly it happened after 30 years of working together. He explained, “We’re talking about 30 years of being brothers, people living together, all our decision were together. Our children grew up together. We’ve got camping trips and 4th of July together. For it to all implode so quickly and out of the blue, it’s shocking. These people that I loved, I took care of, and nurtured all the relationships and worked at a very intimate level creatively with all these people, the betrayal is like immense.”

When asked about the physical altercation after learning of the band’s intentions, Tate confessed, “Oh I did it. I don’t make any bones about it … I lost my temper and I came unglued. I’m glad somebody stopped me because I look back on it with regret. I could have hurt one of them pretty badly, but man, it’s not something I’m proud of. The spitting thing, I know a lot of people have given me hell about that. That historically has been the most degrading thing you could do to somebody, and that’s exactly what was meant by it.” The incident occurred prior to a show when the other band members let him know they had fired his wife and his daughter from their positions managing the group and their fanclub.

Tate revealed that at present, both he and the other members of the group have rights to the Queensryche name, meaning there are two different versions of the band. The singer had filed an injunction hoping that neither he nor the other members would use the name until the courts rendered a decision, but the judge in the case ruled against the preliminary injunction with both sides having access to the moniker until the court date arrives.

As for his own thoughts on the name, Tate says, “It’s something that I’ve worked all my adult life to take care of and build and I feel like, yes, it’s mine.” When asked where he would like to go from here, the vocalist said, “I’d like to sit in a room with those gentlemen and have them tell me face to face what the situation is, explain their actions. I’d like to know and actually understand their point of view. I’d like to see them talk to me face to face rather than through the Internet.”

Tate, much like his former bandmates, is not wasting anytime waiting for the courts before continuing his career. He’s been working on his second solo disc, tentatively titled ‘Kings and Thieves,’ and he revealed, “It’s due out in October. I’m very excited about it and have been working on it for a while. It’s a very hard rock record. I just want to be clear about that.”